


Where the Shallows Meet the Deep

by Curreeus



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, Mermaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-02-27
Packaged: 2018-05-11 03:30:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 18,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5612308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Curreeus/pseuds/Curreeus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gilbert's life as a fisherman was just about as simple as it gets - then he befriended the merman that lived in a tank at the aquarium, and everything got complicated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Shallows

Gilbert Beilschmidt was a simple man.

His life was simple, always had been, and ever since his mother had died and his father had been lost at sea it had been a solid and dependable routine – wake up at dawn, sail out with the morning tide, catch the fish, sell the fish, buy food and other items with the money he got and then come home to feed himself and his younger brother Ludwig.  Ludwig was seventeen, five years younger than himself, and still had the gangly body of a teenager, but was very quickly growing up faster than Gilbert could keep up with.

In this solid, dependable, simple routine, Gilbert’s needs were simple – keep the boat in good repair, get a good night’s sleep, get enough food in his belly and the occasional somebody in his bed, make sure Ludwig got his education to become an engineer so he could travel to the city and actually make something of himself.

If Gilbert did yearn for something more than it did not bear thinking about, because it was never going to happen, and if Gilbert had ever dreamed of being more than a simple fisherman in a washed up fishing town then there was no point lingering on it because his life simply did not allow it. If he spent one night every so often sitting on the cliffs, staring out to sea and wondering what else there might be to life, then it was just an idle fancy, and if he wondered what had become of Elizaveta, his best friend from childhood who’d since moved to the city to get married, then it was just a passing thought, nothing more.

Dwelling on dreams didn’t feed him or Ludwig, didn’t keep their tiny house just out of the town in good repair, and didn’t put clothes on their back, so Gilbert firmly pushed down and away any yearning for some sort of complexity in his life, no matter how potent it might be.

And then, in its vexing and frustrating way, the world brought the complexity to him.

One Sunday afternoon, Gilbert decided to indulge Ludwig and actually take him into town for once, having had a good few catches that week and enough coin to keep them for a bit.

Oceanside towns still had aquariums as a popular attraction despite what washed up on the shore being ten times more interesting – and also free – but nevertheless they headed down, Ludwig with notebook in hand to take notes because that was what he did, Gilbert wandering idly around with him as he looked at all the stuffed versions of what he had in his net every other day of the week. Ludwig was jotting down notes about various things he saw, occasionally asking Gilbert about the details of catching something or sailing in general, and writing down Gilbert's answers – he'd explained to Gilbert that he wanted to streamline the process of fishing so Gilbert didn't have to work so hard to keep them, but Gilbert wasn't sure just how much he could do.

It made him happy to work on, either way, so he humoured his little brother.

As they came to an empty corner of the aquarium, they came upon a large tank – not uncommon, in a place like this, but this one seemed larger than the rest – filled with what looked like saltwater, if the salt crusted around the top was anything to go by. At first glance, in the murky water inside there seemed to be nothing, and Ludwig looked and squinted for a few moments before shrugging and moving on,  Gilbert making to follow him.

But then he saw movement.

With eyes trained for looking for live creatures among endless leagues of sea, he turned back and spied something in the gloom at the back of the tank; the laziest flip of a tail.

Gilbert squinted; and then, gradually, the creature finally appeared clear to him.

There were grey, horizontal flippers that lead to a smooth grey tail, reminiscent of a dolphin, and then these narrowed to a relatively slender body before giving way to… a man.

There was a merman in the tank.

Gilbert’s mouth fell open as his eyes finished travelling up the form of the creature and he laid eyes upon its face, topped with a crop of dark hair, eyes closed and arms laying boneless at his sides.

It looked almost dead. The only thing that betrayed it as alive was the tiny bubble that would escape its mouth every so often, drifting to the surface silently.

Was it dead? It certainly didn’t look alive, at any rate…

Knowing he shouldn’t and doing it anyway, he tapped gently on the glass, trying to see if he could provoke a reaction.

At the vibrations, the merman’s eyes snapped open and it… he?... Looked over to where Gilbert stood, not moving from where he lay curled against the side of the tank, frowning like Gilbert had just insulted his mother.

Gilbert just grinned, giving a little wave, because what else was one supposed to do when confronted with a supposedly mythical beast?

Instead of responding though, the merman’s frown fell from his face as though he were too tired to keep it there, morphing into a sombre pout, and he just looked to give something of sigh as he turned lethargically away from Gilbert, facing the back of the tank and curling into himself.

It was perhaps the saddest thing Gilbert had ever seen a creature do. The merman looked like he should have been splashing through the waves in the bay, leaping and twirling prettily like the dolphins did.

Instead, he sat there, looking hopeless and tired, and it panged Gilbert's heart to see.

He was a fisherman, but it didn't mean he wanted to see the creatures suffering.

Frowning in concern, Gilbert watched for a few minutes, wondering what exactly was going on here, before he jumped as a hand clamped down on his shoulder. He spun around to find one of the curators of the aquarium, chuckling at him and watching him intently with a pair of deep green eyes.

“I see you’ve taken an interest in our merman. Fascinating, isn’t it? Completely real, as well – no monkey torsos and fish tails here!”

Gilbert just frowned a little, taking in the man’s relatively short stature and dirty blonde hair, and his smugly proud expression as he continued to speak about the creature in the tank behind them.

“This is the only one in the world that’s actually been caught and kept successfully. Marvellous, isn’t it?”

Gilbert cocked his head, still frowning.

“So, you’re the one who caught it?”

The man’s eyes widened, and he shook his head.

“Oh no, it was my brother, Alistair. I’m more of a navy man myself.”

Gilbert nodded, turning back to the tank.

“And your brother… he’s experienced with these creatures, I’m guessing? He knows how to take care of them? Because… it doesn’t look happy. I think the tank’s too small.”

The man beside him frowned, watching Gilbert warily, and as Gilbert registered the silence and turned back to him his metal name-badge glinted in the scant lamplight within the aquarium – ‘Arthur’.

Then Arthur took a breath and spoke, and Gilbert was sure that the temperature in the aquarium had dropped a few degrees.

“Alistair was one of the most experienced fisherman there ever was. A wrangler, actually – he was one of the only men in this world brave enough to make his living out of catching the strangest and most wonderful things for those willing to pay for them. Still would be, if this heartless beast hadn’t killed him.”

Gilbert’s eyes widened and he looked back at the merman, who was slowly uncurling from his place in the corner of the tank and was giving a lazy flick of his tail, rising to the surface gently and raising his head out of the water to breath. His hands drifted at his sides, keeping him afloat, and Gilbert marvelled at the smooth blend from flesh into tail, completely seamless. However, the merman didn’t look any more dangerous than the average dolphin, or human walking down the street. He held a certain degree of danger, yes, but not the killer quality of a shark or man-eating predator.

Gilbert turned back to Arthur, one brow raised in a dry question of “really?”

Arthur narrowed his eyes.

“Don’t look at me like that – just because you can’t see danger doesn’t mean it’s not there. Do you see the teeth?”

He pointed, and Gilbert looked, but the merman’s mouth was only open far enough to breath and his teeth were still hidden within his mouth.

Gilbert shook his head, and Arthur spoke.

“Exactly. Alistair didn’t see them either, and that’s how he ended up with a septic bite that progressed so fast none of us saw it coming. Now he’s lying in an early grave.”

He stepped back from Gilbert, face set in a stony expression as he looked up at the tank.

“Marvel at it, absolutely. But don’t feel sorry for it. It doesn’t deserve it.”

There was a beat where Gilbert just stared at Arthur, who returned the stare, green eyes glinting dangerously with something behind them that looked just a little bit broken – but then he looked away, like everyone who had ever maintained eye contact with Gilbert for more than five seconds.

Red eyes on a human were still unsettling, no matter what creatures you might see from the deep day to day.

Arthur coughed, shrugging and looking at the ground before speaking again, almost seeming remorseful for his outburst.

“Besides, it uh… it always looks like that, tank or no. It’s a right sourpuss, actually. Alistair found a whole pod of the creatures out in the Mediterranean, and almost managed to catch a little sweet faced thing, except this one seemed determined to not let him get it.”

Gilbert’s brows just drew closer together, and he turned back to the tank, watching the merman as he still languidly breathed from the stop of the tank.

Arthur just chuckled.

“It’s an impolite creature, too – oi, get back down here, someone’s trying to look at you, why don’t you be polite for once?”

Arthur knocked heavily on the side of the tank, and the creature gave a shocked cry, taking a final breath and dipping back below the surface, glaring daggers at Arthur as he put his hands over his ears.

Arthur just scoffed.

“Don’t look at me like that, you aren’t hurt. Now be nice, or I won’t feed you this evening.”

The merman gave another cry, from underwater sounding more like the noises of the whales from far out to sea, beginning harsh and angry but trailing off to become baleful and sad. The caretaker just nodded, turning back to Gilbert briefly.

“See? What a grump. Won’t give you the time of day unless you’re feeding it. I’ll be glad when it’s gone, in all honesty.”

He sighed, starting to walk away when Gilbert called out to stop him.

“Hey, what do you mean when it’s gone?”

Arthur turned back, eyebrows raised, and then shrugged, speaking.

“Oh, it’s being moved in a month or so, heading off to the house of the rich collector that bought it. He’s been looking for one for years, ever since he saw one off the coast of Portugal. In the Spanish navy he was, apparently. It is one of the last things that remains of Alistair… but… I’d rather not have to see it everyday, in all honesty.”

He looked down, seeming overcome with emotion, and Gilbert felt almost sorry for him. Then Arthur jerked his head up, spinning on his heel and walking away.

“We close in fifteen minutes, by the way. Just so you’re aware.”

Gilbert just watched him go, not really sure what to think of him – then he turned back to the tank, where the merman was sinking slowly back down the floor, sliding his hands down the walls and staring blankly at the glass constraining him. Gilbert thought for a moment, just watching the merman sink, before reaching into his pocket and ruffling around before pulling out a small biscuit.

Ludwig had recently become interested in baking, and part of Gilbert’s budget for the week always went towards buying him ingredients that were gradually growing more exotic. This week’s offering was a small batch of Lebkuchen, despite it not being anywhere near Christmas, and gently, Gilbert broke the biscuit in half, gripping one half in a fist. With another gentle tap on the glass of the tank, he drew the merman’s attention. The merman, who was still drifting towards the floor of the tank, looked up with a start, as though shocked that Gilbert was still standing there. Immediately, his neutral sombre expression was replaced with a slight frown, even when Gilbert smiled.

Gilbert reached up, realising too late that the tank was too tall for him to reach the top of. He leaned up on his toes, and with a gentle toss, he just barely managed to land the sliver of biscuit over the top and between the netting over the tank that allowed air but prevented escape. Both he and the merman watched as the biscuit landed in the water with a small “plop”, clinging to the surface and then slowly sinking, the merman moving away from its path and watching it warily. Gilbert just tapped gently on the tank again, holding up the rest of the biscuit and then putting it to his mouth, miming eating it before actually taking a bite and chewing, miming enjoyment.

The merman just stared at him, and Gilbert’s smile started to falter a bit. Maybe he’d been wrong, maybe it was just a dumb animal anyway and just happened to look human, maybe…

Then, the merman slowly looked from Gilbert back to the half-biscuit, and reached out to grasp it from its downward trajectory, slowly reaching out his tongue to just taste it. He thought for a moment on the taste before his face lit up and he put it into his mouth, chewing in earnest, and Gilbert just stared, noting the “dangerous” teeth Arthur had mentioned; the human looking incisors and then the rest of his teeth growing slowly more slightly pointed towards the back of his mouth.

They would certainly pack a punch when applied, but those weren’t predator’s teeth…

Gilbert was drawn from his thoughts when the merman finished his little snippet of biscuit, checking his fingers to make sure there were no stray crumbs – unlikely, in water, but he did it anyway.

Then he slowly looked up at Gilbert, cocking his head, his eyes wide in curiosity.

Gilbert just smiled and chuckled a little, holding his other hand up to the glass, fingers spread.

The merman was in a tank and he was out here, in the end – if he really _was_ dangerous, what damage could he honestly do?

The merman gave a little kick of his tail, drifting closer to the glass and looking curiously at Gilbert’s hand before he held his own up to it, on the other side of the glass.

The merman’s fingers were a little shorter than his, and combined with the look of awe on his face, he was actually really cute, by human standards – and for a moment, Gilbert could almost fool himself into thinking he could feel warmth from his hand through the glass.

He looked up beyond his hand, almost startled at the fact that the merman's face was closer than it had been before, and Gilbert realised with a little start that his eyes were a very human shade of murky hazel, a smooth blend of green and brown.

 His hair, while it had just looked dark before, was glinting auburn in the light from the lamps next to the tank, and there was one curl on his head that was longer and drifted separate to the rest of his hair, springing out from his forehead, even underwater.

But there was something about him that struck Gilbert deeply, something in his gaze that looked almost… longing. Like the tank that was not just something keeping him contained, but keeping him locked in with his own pain and loneliness, and Gilbert was the only one in a long time who’d bothered to look deeper than his worth as a collector’s item.

Gilbert didn't even realise he'd been staring until there was the sharp ringing of a bell from behind him, accompanied by Arthur’s voice.

"We're now closing, ladies and sirs, thankyou all for coming!"

Gilbert jumped at the sound, looking towards the entrance, watching as Ludwig looked up from the tank he'd been examining at the other end of the aquarium and looked around for his older brother.

Gilbert looked back towards the merman, who'd been following his gaze and had placed his other hand on the glass, frowning in confusion as Gilbert stepped back from the tank.

Gilbert smiled gently, beginning to walk away. On a whim, he waved back at the merman, trying to ignore the way his heart panged as the creature titled his head curiously before sadly mimicking the movement, face falling just a bit and letting himself drift back to the bottom of his too small tank to curl up in the corner.

Gilbert walked back over to Ludwig, ruffling his hair and gesturing towards the exit.

"Let's go, West, we still have dinner to have!"

Ludwig brushed off his brother's hand, wrinkling his nose at the nickname – it had been baby Ludwig's first word, and both their parents had been affronted at the fact that it had been neither "mama" nor "papa" but "West", a word that Gilbert had just happened to say a few moments before when reading a map.

Gilbert liked it, it suited him.

Ludwig didn't, however.

"Bruder please, I'm seventeen. You have to stop calling me that sometime."

Gilbert just shook his head, grinning crookedly.

"Nope, I absolutely don't. Not while you're still my little brother I don't!"

Ludwig sighed, and Gilbert looked over his shoulder back towards the tank, and kind of regretted doing so – the merman was still drifting near the glass of his tank, watching Gilbert leave, and as he saw Gilbert look back, he made what appeared to be a snarl and dove further towards the back of the tank, out of sight.

Gilbert turned back to the exit, eyes on the ground in front of him but not really seeing it.

There was something about that merman that struck a strange chord in him, and he knew he'd probably be thinking about it all the way home.

It wasn’t everyday you met something – or rather _someone_ – like that, after all.

**

As it turns out, Gilbert did think about it all the way home.

He thought about it as Ludwig made cursory and halting conversation – he wasn't much of a talker and Gilbert didn't feel like holding the conversation for once – he thought about it while he put together fish and potato stew for their dinner, and he thought about it while he was trying to fall asleep.

Then he dreamt of strange hazel green eyes that held a frustrated sadness that was so foreign and yet rang true with him; a  yearning for something outside the four confined walls the world had put him in.

Gilbert didn't know what to make of it.

Two days later, when he'd somehow thought he'd seen human limbs coming out of the water ahead of a dolphin fin for the third time, he came home and didn't even bother to take off his coat, just put the coins he'd earned from the day on their communal dining and kitchen table and called out to Ludwig that he'd be home late. Then he stuffed a bread crust in his pocket and turned straight back around and walked out again.

He'd meant to just take a walk to clear his head and had brought the bread crust because he knew he'd miss dinner, but his feet went where they would and twenty minutes later he was standing in front of the aquarium, looking at the light in the window and the sign on the door that advertised the fact that they were open late to show off their nocturnal collection.

He only hesitated a moment before he pulled the unlocked door open, but in that moment he saw yet another flash of those mysterious hazel eyes in his mind's eye and that was all it took for him to make his way inside.

Inside it was dim, and as he made his way around the displays to the back corner, he noticed an elderly man in the same uniform as Arthur from the other day, snoozing in a chair by the door. He let the door close behind him with a loud creak, noting the fact that the man did not even stir.

Gilbert chuckled, walking further in.

Some displays were lit up and some had curtains drawn around them, he noticed as he walked past, and as he reached the tank in the back corner he rejoiced at the fact that it was one of the opened and lit ones – then worried as he realised that the merman had to be a diurnal animal, how much sleep did he actually need?

As he stepped closer he noticed that the merman was much more active at this time though; instead of lying in one corner he was swimming restlessly around the tank, as much as he could with the restricted room he had.

Gilbert stood for a moment, just watching the graceful twist and turn of the merman's slender body and marvelling at how beautiful it looked, before the merman finally noticed him.

Instead of looking angry or dejected, like the day before, all of a sudden the seemingly perpetual frown on his face alleviated slightly, and he even smiled a little, stopping in his swimming and moving towards the front of the tank, putting both hands up to the glass.

Gilbert smiled back, giving a little wave like he had the day before, and the merman made a curious little sound, a sighing trill that sounded ten times happier than the sounds he'd made the other day. Gilbert smiled a bit wider.

"Did you miss me, huh?"

The merman watched Gilbert's lips moving eagerly, tilting his head to the side and frowning in confusion before removing his hands from the glass and moving them frantically in very clear and decisive motions, combining the motions with shrill little trills and chirping sounds.

When he stopped, Gilbert just shook his head helplessly and shrugged.

"I don't speak merman, sorry..."

The merman crossed his arms, pouting and looking very annoyed and also very cute, Gilbert noted with a chuckle. Then he just gestured up, pointing at the top of the tank and then miming breathing.  He grabbed the stepladder he noticed next to the tank – they probably used it for cleaning and feeding – and sat it next to the glass, climbing it and putting himself at just the right height to lean his elbows on the edge of the tank, and waited for the merman to get the idea.

The water level was too low for the merman to reach the actual top of the tank, and there was a net strung over the top besides, but he surfaced anyway, looking up at Gilbert curiously as Gilbert pulled the bread crust out of his pocket, ripping it in half and holding half down to the merman between the rope of the net.

"Here, you have it, I bet all they give you is fish anyway."

The merman just looked up, his habitual frown back between his brows, and reached up slowly to take the bread from Gilbert, watching to make sure Gilbert took a bite before he himself started tearing into it with his sharp teeth.

Gilbert just leant on the tank and watched him, chuckling as he noted the way that the strange, buoyant curl on the merman's forehead had dried off quicker than the rest of his hair and was already defying gravity to spring out from his head.

At the sound the merman looked up from the crust, frowning at Gilbert and making a confused sound.

Above water his vocalisations sounded almost human, and Gilbert stood a little straighter, wanting to try something.

He placed a hand on his chest, the merman watching with interest, and enunciated his sentence as clearly as he could.

"I'm Gilbert."

He gestured to the merman as though asking him to speak, and the merman frowned, gulping down the last of the crust and swallowing before placing a hand on his own chest and trying to imitate Gilbert.

"I.... ah... ah-eh..."

He moved his mouth a few times, clearly having trouble with consonants, but Gilbert, excited at the fact that the merman could make a sound other than squealing and squeaking and understood that Gilbert was trying to communicate, just grinned, tapping his chest and repeating his name.

"Gilbert."

The merman frowned in frustration, tapping his own chest again and struggling to get the sounds out. Gilbert could hear his throat working, producing a strange mix of percussive consonants before he finally managed to pair one with an actual sound.

"Geh... Gil... Gilberr...Gilberr...t."

Gilbert laughed happily, applauding softly.

"Yeah! Gilbert! That's right, that was so good!"

It was clear he had no idea the words Gilbert was saying, but the merman responded to his excited tone, smiling shyly and swimming a little closer to the tank wall excitedly.

Gilbert smiled down at him, then remembered the signs the merman had tried to use earlier and tried to communicate what he wanted.

He pointed to his mouth, miming something coming out of it, then pointed at the merman, who just tilted his head, confused.

Gilbert made the sign again, and the merman just frowned.

"G...Gilbert?"

Gilbert sighed in frustration, pointing to himself again.

"Gilbert. That's me. What's your name?"

He said his name once more, pointing to himself, then pointed to the merman and made a noise to indicate he was interested.

The merman's face brightened, and Gilbert thanked the lord for Ludwig speaking so little and often communicating in little movements and seemingly universal sounds.

The merman pointed at Gilbert, saying his name again, and Gilbert nodded, smiling – he seemed to actually get it!

Gilbert pointed at the merman again, and the creature nodded, pointing to himself and then seeming to think for a bit.

He made a few little squeaks and a soft little descending squeal with his mouth closed, looking down at the water, then looked back up at Gilbert and opened his mouth.

"Oh... Loh... vee... no? Loh-vee-no?"

Gilbert listened, and then the merman nodded at him, waiting for Gilbert to repeat it. Gilbert repeated the sounds a few times, then tried to run them all together into a name.

"Lovino?"

The merman nodded happily, and smiled wider than Gilbert had seen him smile so far. Gilbert chuckled, repeating the name.

"Lovino!"

The merman – Lovino – just gave an excited little chirp, twisting a bit in the water like an excited child that couldn’t hold still.

Gilbert laughed, and reached a hand through the rope and into the tank, wondering if he could reach Lovino's head and that bouncing curl as the merman swam closer and reached out to his hand – but then he heard a chair squeal and a voice from towards the entrance of the aquarium.

"Is there someone in here? What's going on down there?"

Both Gilbert and Lovino looked towards the entrance and then back at each other, their panicked expressions mirroring each other, and at the sound of footsteps Gilbert stumbled down the stepladder he was still standing on, quickly folding it and stacking it back against the side of the tank.

Seconds after he'd done that the elderly caretaker from earlier rounded the bend, frowning over his glasses at Gilbert.

"What are you doing down here, I thought I heard noises?"

Gilbert shrugged, trying to look nonchalant as Lovino resumed his swimming around his tank.

"Oh, I was just watching the merman, and when he saw me he started making a fuss. That's all."

The caretaker squinted, but shrugged.

"Alright, if that's all it is. But I'd best be getting you home, son, it's getting late. We're closing now anyways."

Gilbert just nodded, smiling, and the caretaker turned and hobbled away, blowing out lamps and shutting curtains as he did so.

Gilbert waited until he was out of sight before turning back to Lovino, who had stopped his swimming and had his hands up to the glass again.

Gilbert sighed, putting his hand up to one of Lovino's and meeting his confused gaze as the merman crooned sadly, pressing his face close to the glass with a frown.

Gilbert just chuckled, wondering how a creature like this could possibly be so cute.

"I'll try and come back when I can though, ok? You must get lonely in here by yourself."

Lovino just shook his head, looking annoyed at the fact that Gilbert kept speaking when he clearly couldn't understand.

Gilbert just sighed, removing his hand from the glass and starting to back away, shoving his hands in his pockets.

"I'll see you soon, ok Lovino?"

Lovino watched Gilbert's mouth intently, and upon realising that Gilbert had just said his name he smiled faintly, his frown alleviating the slightest bit. Gilbert waved, and Lovino waved back, right until Gilbert was out of sight.

That night, Gilbert slept properly for the first time in several days.


	2. The Deep

Gilbert was back soon – sooner than he himself had expected, even.

He'd thought that maybe Lovino would be a curiosity for him, something to spend every so often entertaining himself with, but that wasn’t at all how it turned out. Now, instead of spending his spare moments walking along the cliffs and sitting with his own thoughts, he found himself down at the aquarium, feeling a little leap of happiness in his chest when Lovino saw him and smiled, dancing happily behind the glass of his tank.

When he managed to catch his quota and come home early, he spent the extra hours teaching Lovino more human words, which the merman seemed to lap up.

Gilbert managed to figure out that Lovino preferred food with more flavour and spice, and would always bring something along with him when he could, much to Lovino's excitement. Sometimes he would criticise the choices, with what communication they had, but it was always relatively light hearted and Gilbert always ended up laughing at Lovino's frustrated inability to insult him the way he clearly wanted to.

Lovino seemed to be much more intelligent – and human – than anyone wanted to give him credit for, and within a couple of days he and Gilbert had begun to construct a crude but common language, made up of both signing and different words and sounds, and had started actually being able to hold halting conversations. Gilbert found a few books in the town's old and decrepit library about "hand-speech", a method used with the deaf in some cities to the south, and eagerly learned as much as he could from it, delighting in the fact that Lovino recognised some of the movements and that the common knowledge improved their communication.

Within only a few weeks they started being relatively fluent with each other, something both of them rejoiced over – Lovino because Gilbert was the only person who treated him like more than just a stupid animal and Gilbert because as personable as he tried to be, being a fisherman was a lonely existence, and letters from Elizaveta were few and far between. They were also filled with stories of the man who was courting her, Roderich, who he hated without ever having met.

The various curators of the aquarium gave up on trying to police Gilbert's movements, some of them learning when he came and went and greeting him by name when he arrived. Most of them started to become happy to see him, not only because he kept Lovino in line but because he would sometimes bring his own rare catches, selling them to the aquarium for more than he’d get elsewhere. Most of the people that worked there trusted him, after a while.

All except Arthur.

Arthur remained constantly suspicious of Gilbert, and if he was on duty while Gilbert visited Lovino then he would always find some excuse to lurk close by, watching them both. A few times he’d asked about their strange method of communication, but seemed unable to process that it was anything more complex than a trainer teaching a dog commands.

He always set Gilbert on edge, but he tried not to think about it too much.

Ludwig got very suspicious of Gilbert's movements only a few days into the arrangement, and Gilbert was torn between telling his little brother and keeping Lovino a secret... but in the end he found he couldn't refuse those big blue eyes anything, even in a gangly seventeen year old face rather than a child's pudgy features.

Ludwig took the story of a merman in the aquarium quite well, and after he'd come with Gilbert and been introduced to Lovino – who wasn't fond of him for some reason – Gilbert learned that Lovino had a brother too, out in the ocean somewhere. His name was a lot harder for Lovino to say than his own, but he'd managed to spell it out with his hands until Gilbert got it and repeated it several times until Lovino was satisfied – Feliciano.

Feliciano had almost been captured by the fisherman that had taken Lovino – Arthur’s brother Alistair – but Lovino had refused to let Alistair take him, giving himself up instead. When Gilbert asked about him biting Alistair Lovino had just glared, saying shortly that he’d attempted to harm Feliciano right before Lovino had resorted to that, and that it had been a necessary course of action.

He didn't say it, but Gilbert knew the look in his eyes – Feliciano was his younger brother.

It seemed that both of them would do anything to keep their younger brothers safe.

Soon after meeting Lovino, Ludwig became a lot more comfortable with Gilbert's absences – Lovino however, began to become somewhat restless after Ludwig's visit, and it took several tries for Gilbert to pry it out of him.

The talk of brothers had just made clear to him how much he missed home.

Every time someone opened the door a little too far and the scent of the sea wafted in or every time Gilbert came straight from fishing and Lovino could smell the sea on him... all of it hurt him and reminded him of what he was missing, of _who_ he was missing, cooped up in his little tank with his world narrowed down to four very small walls, and Gilbert's heart panged when he realised he knew exactly what he meant.

Lovino mentioned once that he'd tried escaping, only a few days after they'd captured him – the glass was too thick to break, so he'd managed to leap over the edge of the tank, deposit himself heavily on the ground outside of it, and crawl hastily on his hands towards the exit before they'd caught him and put him back in the tank.

He bruised something badly in the fall, but no-one thought to check, instead just lowering the water level until there was next to no hope of reaching the top while in it, then replacing the open top with the netting that now covered it and held him trapped.

The anger in Lovino’s face and the furious motion of his hands as he’d told Gilbert this had said volumes on how frustrating captivity was for him, and in the back of his mind Gilbert idly thought of how difficult it would be to free Lovino and put him back out to sea.

He had settled quickly on the fact that it was impossible, though. There were too many things that could go wrong and too much risk, and while Gilbert had a reckless lack of self-preservation and didn’t particularly care what happened to him, he had a little brother who relied on him and couldn’t just get himself jailed for theft and leave Ludwig on his own.

So, getting Lovino out was nigh impossible, Gilbert reasoned, and he should stop torturing himself with “what ifs”.

For a little while, he did.

Then the world decided, once again, to complicate everything.

One night, Gilbert found himself getting caught up in the silent conversation he and Lovino were having, their hands moving furiously and faces held close to the glass, watching each other intently and smiling occasionally at something the other said.

This wasn’t uncommon, because speech tired Lovino out after a while, as did surfacing for long enough to have a halting conversation with his limited vocabulary. Both of them understood hand motions a lot easier at that point in time, and a silent conversation in that way made a lot more sense.

Gilbert was in the middle of saying something about his catch that day when Lovino’s eyes had slid from his face and hands to looking over his shoulder, and the slight smile that had sat comfortably on his face fell quickly into a concerned frown. His eyes widened and he moved backwards from the glass a bit, suddenly wary, and Gilbert turned to come face to face with Arthur, watching them both intently from only a few feet away.

There was silence for a few moments where all three of them just stared, and then Arthur shifted on the broom he was leaning on and spoke.

“You… you like that thing a lot, don’t you.”

It was a statement, not a question. Gilbert grit his teeth at the insinuation that Lovino was a thing and just nodded, not wanting to anger the man that he still saw as something of an unnamed threat.

Arthur just nodded sagely, picking up his broom and making to leave.

“You’ll miss it when it’s gone, then. Only another three days to go.”

Gilbert’s blood ran cold, and he racked his brain for what on earth that sentence could possibly mean before finally falling on the reason.

_“…it’s being moved in a month or so, heading off to the house of the rich collector that bought it…”_

He felt his heart jerk in a sudden mix of fear and anger, and he looked at Lovino briefly with horror on his face before taking a step after Arthur.

“Arthur, where will he go? Where does the… the buyer live?”

Arthur stopped, turning back to Gilbert with an unreadable expression that looked something like disgust.

“He lives in the city to the south. Too far for someone like you to travel often, and that’s even if the man would actually let you in.”

He looked Gilbert up and down before smirking.

“Not likely.”

Gilbert looked down at his patched trousers and worn overcoat briefly before scowling at Arthur, who just shrugged, continuing on his way.

“I’d say my goodbyes to your little pet now. We don’t want a teary farewell when they box it up, you’ll just make it more difficult than it needs to be.”

Gilbert glared, gritting his teeth and fuming, watching Arthur as he walked away and through the door marked “Staff”, clearly looking to start locking up for the night. That meant they had at least a few more minutes before he came back.

As Gilbert turned back Lovino gently put his hands up to the glass, frightened questions in his eyes, and Gilbert took a deep breath, trying to figure out how he could possibly summarise such a thing into the basic communication they had.

He settled on the thing that hit him the hardest.

_They’re taking you away from me._

Lovino stared intently at Gilbert’s hands, expression growing increasingly stormy, and when Gilbert dropped his hands, he furiously started moving his in return, his motions growing increasingly more distressed.

_What? Why?! Where will I go?_

Gilbert just shook his head, feeling absolutely helpless.

_Far away, where there’s no ocean, to live in another tank. They…_

Gilbert paused – their language had no sign for ‘money’ or ‘bought’ – but Lovino got the picture, staring with horror and starting to shake his head insistently, every line of his body speaking of pain.

He signed quickly to Gilbert.

_When?_

Gilbert bit his lip, responding grimly.

_Three days._

Lovino’s entire body seemed the very image of distress at that, and he thrashed in frustration for a few moments, making a pained wail and thumping on the glass.

Gilbert placed his hands on the tank pleadingly, watching with despair as his friend writhed in torment.

“Lovino, stop…”

Lovino couldn’t hear him though, and the merman just let out another squeal before swimming quickly up, throwing himself out of the water with his arms outstretched. He caught onto the netting above the tank with a snarl, lifting himself out of the water, and Gilbert watched in shock as he started to gnaw and tear at it, desperation obvious in his every movement.

Quickly, Gilbert grabbed the stepladder that was still at the side of the tank, climbing quickly and then leaning out and tapping Lovino’s wet knuckles to get his attention.

Lovino paid him little mind, however, and just kept tearing at the ropes with his sharp teeth. Gilbert placed his hand on Lovino’s clenched fist, speaking quietly.

"Lovino, stop. There’s nothing we can do."

Lovino stopped briefly and just glared, his expression dark.

"Out."

He shifted his grip on the rope, moving a bit closer to Gilbert, who just looked down, shocked.

"Going home. No tank... Home.”

For a moment they just looked at each other, red eyes on murky haze green, and a thousand thoughts sped through Gilbert’s mind, each more affecting than the last.

There was nothing he could do about the situation, nothing – he couldn’t outbid the collector to buy Lovino when the man clearly had money to burn, and he couldn’t stop them from taking Lovino away. God help him, he was just a fisherman with no real future in a town that was going nowhere, and he had literally nothing to offer and no way to help.

And even if they freed Lovino then Gilbert would still lose him – Lovino would go home to his family in the Mediterranean and Gilbert, contained in his own four walls of existence on a lonely and distant shore, would cease to matter.

There was nothing he could do, and even if he could, did he even want to?

And yet when he stared down at Lovino, whose hands clung tightly to the ropes and whose face was full of a desperate and determined hope, Gilbert felt his heart pang.

"Gilbert, pl... please? Help…"

And Gilbert found that he didn't have it in himself to keep him trapped any longer.

Gilbert's four walls were stuck in place and always would be. His life would always have to remain simple.

But that didn't mean Lovino's had to, and he was selfish if he thought he could force him into it.

He had enjoyed knowing Lovino, and had loved having something else in his life but dull routine, but God help him but the last thing he wanted was to see his new friend rotting away in a too small tank for the rest of his life.  If he was going to leave Gilbert, then the thought of Lovino swimming freely through the ocean was infinitely more preferable than the thought of him pining away behind glass, with people staring and pointing and treating him like some circus attraction when Gilbert knew he was so much more.

He had to get him out; he had to let him go, no matter how impossible it was.

With a mind whirling in plans of how to make this work, Gilbert reached down into the tank, reaching out for Lovino.

Lovino stretched up as far as he could towards the hand, pressing his head into Gilbert’s palm, and Gilbert slid his hand down to cup Lovino’s cheek, feeling his heart break even as he made the promise he knew he had to make.

“I’ll… I’ll think of something. I’ll help, ok Lovino? I’ll think of something.”

Lovino crooned sadly, pressing his face to Gilbert’s palm, and Gilbert felt his heart thump at the contact and wondered how on earth he’d gotten this deep.

**

Gilbert slept little that night, his head whirling with plans for freeing Lovino, and when he went out for the morning catch he found himself distracted by the weave of his own net, comparing the similarities to the one of top of Lovino’s tank and wondering how it could be broken or wriggled through in some way by a slender merman.

By nightfall, as he made his way to the aquarium, all he could do was pray that Arthur wasn’t on duty and he’d have some time to enact his plan – which of course went down the drain as soon as Arthur’s smiling face greeted Gilbert at the door.

Fine. That just meant a complicated game of waiting.

He relayed his simple plan to Lovino – simple meant fewer things that could go wrong – and then they waited, idling the time away with talk of the ocean itself, something both of them loved.

Gilbert didn’t miss the way that Lovino’s face lit up excitedly as his hands moved, rather than the dejected longing that it usually held, and he tried to feel happy for him, but the best that he seemed able to muster was a melancholy, hollow kind of joy.

He knew he was doing the right thing, but it hurt much more than it should, and all he could do was half-heartedly chastise himself for being selfish.

The aquarium was small enough that any visitors’ goings and comings could be easily heard by anyone already inside, and the whole thing was designed in an oval shaped loop, with Lovino’s tank at one end and the door at the other. When it came time for Arthur to begin to lock up, Gilbert made a show of walking past him where he sat in the small office set off the main room, making to leave, then opening the door and letting it close so that it audibly slammed.

Instead of leaving, however, he merely walked back around the other side of the loop, away from Arthur, careful to keep the partition in the centre between him and the other man. When there were gaps in the centre row of tanks, he was careful to move slowly and avoid both the man’s gaze and the squeaky floorboards that he’d memorised the placement of from being here so much.

Arthur always closed up the aquarium in a clockwise loop, starting with Lovino and working his way around, and that night was no different. When he got up to begin his round, Gilbert hovered behind the large, darkened tank of an Atlantic bass for a few minutes, watching Arthur as he worked his way around the aquarium, closing all the curtains of the exhibits around their tanks. As he made it towards the door end of the loop and his back was to Lovino, Gilbert scuttled from his hiding place, boots in his hands so he made less noise, and ducked under the floor length tablecloth of a table with a number of stuffed displays only a small distance from Lovino’s tank.

Moments later, Arthur rounded the corner, and Gilbert watched through the tiniest crack in the tablecloth as he finished closing the last of the curtains. Then, he crept over to Lovino’s tank, clearly trying to be quiet, and after getting a good grip on both curtains, he ripped them open with a loud “aha!”

Lovino hissed and screamed in shock, scowling at Arthur, who just rolled his eyes.

“Had to check, I didn’t think I’d heard his boots outside but apparently he was just being quiet today.”

Gilbert’s blood ran cold for a second, silently cursing himself and watching anxiously as Arthur continued to search Lovino’s tank, seeming to be looking for something that he couldn’t quite find. As he watched though, something in Arthur’s face seemed to shift, and the man put a hand up to the glass as though struck by a wistful memory, his hand gentle and his expression almost sad. Lovino just stared, and when Arthur met the merman’s gaze his face hardened into a scowl.

With something that looked like the slightest tinge of regret, he closed up Lovino’s curtains and walked away, snuffing lamps as he did so, leaving Gilbert wondering what he’d just seen.

He didn’t check under Gilbert’s table, for which Gilbert thanked the heavens – but it wasn’t until Gilbert saw all the lights get snuffed out, heard the door close and heard the heavy clunk of the key in the lock that he dared leave his hiding place.

He crept slowly out from underneath the table, listening for sounds of breathing that wasn’t his own just in case Arthur had somehow replicated the sound of the key in the lock and was still inside.

However, he heard nothing, save for the occasional swish of a tail through water or sounds from outside, and breathed a sigh of relief.

This might just work.

Slowly, still feeling the need for secrecy and quiet, he crept up to Lovino’s tank, slowly pulling one curtain aside and peering in.

In the dark there was little to see, but Lovino squealed happily when he saw it was Gilbert, placing both hands to the glass and smiling wide. Gilbert just placed a finger to his lips and grabbed the stepladder, and Lovino swam up and gripped onto the netting above him again, putting his teeth back to it experimentally.

Meanwhile, Gilbert had reached the top of the ladder, and going mostly by feel and the moonlight filtering through the windows in the dark aquarium, he pulled his pocket knife from his coat and started to cut one of the ropes of the net close to the glass of the tank. Lovino let out a shaky sigh, freedom seeming that much closer to him, and let one of his hands fall from the netting in exhausted relief, as though he hadn’t really thought this could be real until now.

He sank himself slowly back into the water, smiling softly up at Gilbert through the gloom.

"Gilbert... thankyou."

Gilbert stopped in his cutting for a moment, looking down through the dark at a pair of hazel eyes filled with gratitude, and he just smiled gently back, trying to swallow the hurt he felt behind a smile.

"You owe me a lot of fish for this, Lovino."

Gilbert knew Lovino didn't catch all of the words, but he got the important ones - "me" and "fish" - and a little grin tickled his mouth.

Gilbert, meanwhile, sliced through one of the thick ropes and started on the next, Lovino making an excited chirp when the loose end fell into the water next to him, freedom suddenly seeming much closer.

The second rope fell only a minute or so after the first, and the third quickly after that, Gilbert's knife growing blunter and blunter as he kept sawing away. He kept one ear on the entrance just in case Arthur came back and spotted them and another on Lovino's excited squeaks as the ropes splashed into the water and he wriggled himself under the space in the net they created, unable to help himself from feeling a little excited himself at Lovino’s happiness.

Eventually, after the fourth rope finally tore and Gilbert put his now useless knife back in his pocket, the hole ripped in the net looked big enough for Lovino to slip through, and Gilbert reached out a hand for Lovino to grab, doing another quick check around for any bystanders.

Thankfully, the aquarium was still empty, so Gilbert turned back to the tank, waggling his fingers in a request for Lovino to grab on.

Lovino however, just dove and swam down, making Gilbert frown in confusion.

"Lovino...?"

Then the merman gave a powerful kick and burst through the surface of the water, propelling himself far enough out of the tank to grab onto the lip of the tank, fingers gripping tightly and voice strained.

“Gilbert, help?”

Gilbert sighed.

“If you’d just waited...”

He grabbed Lovino’s forearms, heaving the merman – who was heavier than he looked – out of the water and sliding him up the side of the tank, grabbing him around the shoulders and then the waist for a firmer grip.

As soon as he could reach, in return Lovino latched his arms heavily around Gilbert’s shoulders, and finding himself with his arms full of merman and precarious footing on a stepladder, Gilbert yelped and wobbled, the stepladder going out from underneath him.

They fell with a pair of shrieks, landing heavily on the floor with a thud, Lovino on top of Gilbert.

Gilbert was winded for a second, then registered that there were two hands cradling his head and stopping him from hitting his head on the floor, and that he now had a lapful of breathlessly excited merman.

Lovino just smiled down at him from where he lay on top of Gilbert, tail twitching and that one curl bobbing.

"Out," he said with satisfaction, staring down.

Then, his smile slowly faded, and with what looked like fascination, his hands slid from cupping Gilbert's head protectively to stroking through his hair, letting the short strands slip through his fingers with curiosity. His palms slid onto Gilbert's cheeks, looking shocked at the feel of them, and against his better reasoning Gilbert's hands came up to Lovino's forearms again, this time marvelling at the smooth feel of them as he slid his hands from elbow to shoulder. Both of them were slightly in awe at the sudden realisation that for the first time, they could actually touch each other.

For the whole of their acquaintance physical touch had more or less been out of the question. The water level had been too low for Lovino to reach out comfortably, and then the netting had been in the way, and they’d almost always had an audience – so apart from the brief brush of fingers when Gilbert handed something into the tank, they’d built their entire friendship without ever having even shaken hands.

Now everything was different and there were a thousand new things to discover, like the way Gilbert’s hair seemed silky and soft in comparison to Lovino’s water logged strands, or the way Lovino’s body was almost completely hairless and built for streamlining through water.

Or the way Lovino’s eyes were so much deeper when viewed from this close, seeming to go on forever in the dim light of the aquarium, two pools of hazel green infinity.

Gilbert’s hands had slipped onto Lovino’s cheeks before he’d even realised, cupping them tenderly, and it took the sound of a horse and cab from outside to remind him of what Lovino was doing out of the tank in the first place.

As fascinating as it was, there was no time for any sort of discovery unless they wanted the whole plot to be blown.

Reluctantly, Gilbert moved to put his hands on Lovino's, where they’d settled in the soft hair on the back of his neck, and pulled them away, much to Lovino’s disappointment.

"Come on, we need to get you out before someone comes looking for you. Or me."

Lovino looked down, cocking his head curiously but seeming to get the message – he rolled off of Gilbert, steadying himself with his belly to the floor and starting to pull himself along on his arms, determination fixed on his face.

Gilbert started to move after him, making to scoop him up from the floor – determination alone wasn't going to get him across three streets to the bay – and then remembered that they would need some kind of disguise.

Dolphin tails weren't really an acceptable fashion and might draw some attention.

"Hey, Lovino, wait!"

Lovino stopped for a moment at the hushed call, turning back to Gilbert with a frown. Gilbert just reached up to the curtains that were pulled back from Lovino's tank, tugging at one experimentally before yanking it harshly and pulling it down.

He laid it out on the floor next to the tank as best he could, Lovino just frowning in confusion, and then Gilbert pointed at him and patted the middle of it, making him frown even deeper.

Gilbert pointed to the curtain again.

"Hide, I'll carry you."

The frown alleviated slightly, and Lovino wriggled over to the curtain, flopping himself down on top of it and curling up as best he could. Gilbert folded the curtain on top of him and wrapped him up as neatly as the stiff fabric allowed, Lovino crooning curiously at the tight press of both Gilbert’s hands and the fabric and making Gilbert glad for the dark to hide his suddenly heat-flooded face.

Once Lovino was tightly tucked into the fabric and his tail was hidden, Gilbert scooped him up, making Lovino give a surprised cry and cling to Gilbert's shoulders for stability.

The motion pressed them closer together, and Gilbert wondered how someone who was part aquatic mammal could be so warm.

Lovino was heavy – he was still wet and the curtain was quickly soaking through, making Gilbert's shirt even wetter than it was and making him shiver – but the journey out of the back entrance to the aquarium and down the few streets that separated them from the shore was actually not too difficult. Despite it being early evening and only just getting dark, they encountered just one other person, who happened to be the lamp lighter and was happy to let them do their own business as long as they left him to his. They didn't even make eye contact, and the strangely shaped bundle in Gilbert's arms didn't draw as much attention as he feared it would.

It was still safer than carrying someone whose lower half was clearly not human down to the shore in plain sight though, and Gilbert was glad he'd thought of the curtain.

Lovino however, clearly wasn’t dealing well with being out of water for this long, his head starting to loll on his shoulders as though it was too heavy and starting to breathe heavily despite not actually doing any physical activity, as though he were dehydrated.

Gilbert just adjusted him slightly, earning a soft but distressed sound that could almost have passed for a pained moan.

"Come on Lovino, we're almost there."

Gilbert's small fishing boat was moored up along the rocky shore a little ways, so it was useless to him right now in order to get Lovino to deeper waters, but the edge of the dock was close and would suit the purpose.

Walking to the end of the cobblestoned wharf, where the stone edge of the dock dropped off to meet the waves, Gilbert placed Lovino as gently as he could onto the ground and looked around warily at the empty dockyard before starting to unfold the curtain. Lovino wriggled excitedly, perking up and clearly reacting to the smell of the sea and the feel of the spray from the languid waves as it splashed up on him. He wriggled around more, clearly trying to help Gilbert unwrap him and just making it more difficult, squealing and whining the whole time.

Gilbert smiled indulgently down at him, feeling like the worst was over and they could afford to take a little time at this point, tapping Lovino gently on the nose and making him sniff and wrinkle it.

"Hey, stop that! You want to go home or not?"

Lovino just grinned up at him but stopped writhing so much, letting Gilbert unwrap him like some sort of Christmas gift and slowly peel away the now wet cloth.

Then his gaze slid just to the left of Gilbert's shoulder and his face fell, replaced with a mask of absolute terror.

He started shrieking, clearly lacking the presence of mind to form any words, using his own now free hands to rip off the curtain and wriggle out of it, and Gilbert started to turn, to see what had him so afraid.

Then the cold metal of a gun met his temple, and an arm wrapped around his neck, holding him in place.

"How on earth did I know you were going to pull a stunt like this?”

Arthur.

Gilbert tried to turn and shrug him off, but the gun pressed harder and the arm wrapped tighter, and Arthur spoke to someone behind them.

“That’s the merchandise there, officer. Highly prized, and apparently some people just can’t keep their hands off of it.”

Arthur pulled tighter on Gilbert’s neck, making him gag, and Gilbert tried to struggle back desperately, to no avail. Arthur was stronger than he looked, and all he could do was look down at Lovino, who was watching and snarling as the policeman who seemed to have accompanied Arthur walked cautiously towards him with a net.

Arthur just spoke quietly.

“Do you really think you’d get away with this? Really? Honestly, the way you pine over that thing, it should have been obvious to you that I’d figure you out.”

Lovino snarled at the policeman, who dove at him with the net, and Gilbert saw red, pulling against Arthur's arm – because no matter how much it hurt him for Lovino to leave, he’d be damned before he saw him in a net ever again.

"Lovino, go! Home!"

Lovino took his eyes off the policeman and looked back to Gilbert for just a second, his eyes full of pain and regret, letting out a shrill cry of desperation. Gilbert just shook his head as much as he could.

"Don't worry about me, just go!"

Lovino just gave a sad cry, looking somewhat hurt, but then cut himself off in a snarl as the policeman dove towards him with the net. He dodged, and with one last lingering look back at Gilbert he neatly evaded the net, diving off the edge of the dock and disappearing with a splash.

Gilbert sighed with relief and a tinge of regret as he saw him escape, and then Arthur threw Gilbert aside with a snarl, diving towards the edge of the dock himself.

Gilbert fell heavily to the wet stone pavers, sliding across them, one of his arms flying off the edge of the dock before he could stop himself. He narrowly avoided falling off the dock himself before he recovered and looked back to what Arthur was doing.

With an almost manic look in his eye Arthur aimed the handgun into the water and started shooting with wild abandon, muttering to himself.

"Come on, surely a stuffed one is almost as good as a live one..."

A few seconds passed before Arthur and Gilbert just stared into the water, seeing nothing and eliciting a cry of frustration and a sigh of relief respectively.

Arthur just put a shaking hand to his mouth, staring unseeingly into the water with wide eyes.

“Oh god, they’re going to kill me…”

Gilbert remembered the strange expression from earlier as Arthur had stared into Lovino’s tank, and almost felt sorry for him.

Almost.

The policeman who had accompanied Arthur finally gave a sigh, going to place his hand on Arthur’s shoulder tentatively.

"Come on lad, it's gone now, there's no point crying over spilt - "

Arthur snarled, throwing off the policeman's hand and storming towards Gilbert, who was still getting up from where he'd fallen. He'd barely made it into a crouch before the gun was pointed at his forehead, with a wild eyed Arthur staring him down.

"Where would it be headed?"

Gilbert just frowned angrily, lips curling in a grimace.

"Why would I tell you that?"

Arthur just jerked the gun in his hands, making Gilbert flinch.

"Because I currently have a gun to your head, and you will do as I say! You could talk to it, you would know! Where did it go?!"

Gilbert just smiled grimly, shrugging, his eyes hard and angry as he stood to his full height.

"You’re the one who was supposedly the expert, you tell me. But he’s free now, there’s nothing you nor I can do."

Arthur growled in frustration, cocking the gun without removing his eyes from Gilbert.

"I'll give you til the count of three or I'll blow your thrice cursed brains out. One... two..."

Gilbert just closed his eyes, half of him hoping that Arthur would prove too much of a coward to shoot and the other half apologising to Ludwig, curled up in his bed at home, with his last remaining family member about to follow their parents and leave him alone in the world.

Then, just as Arthur's mouth began to shape the word "three", several things happened in quick succession.

The first, all three of the people on the dock heard the splash of something breaching the water just beyond the edge, and the clink of a large chain to the left, where a ship was moored. Then, before any of them could react to even turn and check what it was, there was the slap of flesh of stone, and Gilbert felt a cold and wet hand close around his ankle, accompanied by a loud cry of "Gilbert!"

The hand on his ankle give a sharp yank, and just as Arthur's finger tightened on the trigger from shock, he was pulled from the wet and slippery stones of the dock with a yelp, accompanied by the sound of a gunshot that had ricocheted off of the cobblestone to bury itself uselessly in stone.

Then there was dark, murky and cold water, and Gilbert felt himself being drawn deep down into it by the ankle.

He jerked and struggled, trying to swim upwards, feeling his lungs burning with insufficient air and wanting to take his chances with Arthur's gun that might miss rather than the water that was most definitely going to kill him.

Then there was a dark flash of movement, and the hand around his ankle let go, only for Lovino's face to loom out of the gloom, looking almost panicked. He made some sort of sign with his hands, trying to say something that Gilbert couldn’t understand, and Gilbert felt a jolt of fear as he remembered all the stories of merpeople that seduced sailors and then just dragged them to the depths, not out of malice, but out of wanting to befriend them.

Perhaps Lovino had just been a very clever animal after all, and Gilbert was about to die at his hands without Lovino even realising, the dark and murky water of the dock swirling around them like an oppressive storm.

Lovino swam a little closer, his grip tight on Gilbert’s arms, and Gilbert panicked, thrashing his limbs and trying to swim upwards, his lungs burning, his eyes stinging, his heart throbbing... and then there was the press of Lovino's hands on Gilbert's cheeks, halting his movement.

There was the gentle pressure of his mouth on Gilbert's.

And everything stopped.

Gilbert's lungs stopped burning and struggling to draw breath, and suddenly they were able to breathe, air that felt only slightly stuffy and tainted making its way down his throat, and slowly, his eyes slid closed, stinging with salt and unable to really focus on anything anyway with Lovino's face so close.

Everything seemed very quiet all of a sudden.

For several long moments he was unable to focus on anything other than Lovino's gentle hands on his face as he slowly took one long deep breath, his heart settling down.

When Lovino pulled away it was almost a shock, and when he grabbed Gilbert’s wrist and started swimming Gilbert could barely do anything but be pulled along through the water like a ragdoll.

He didn't register that they'd actually broken the surface of the water until Lovino let him go, his hands slipping from Gilbert's wrist to his shoulders, a small concerned sound escaping him.

Gilbert took a deep breath of crisp night air, sluggishly opening his eyes, his world appearing sort of hazy – though whether that was a side-affect of suddenly plummeting into freezing water or something Lovino had done he wasn't sure.

He took a second to take in Lovino's worried face, wondering why Lovino was worried, he was fine – and then he remembered the reason why they would have been in danger to begin with.

His eyes widened, and he spun around in the water, looking for the dock and expecting a gun to be pointed at him from not very far away, a gunshot right behind it...

But there was nothing immediately around them but sea.

As Gilbert spun more in the water, frowning, he finally fixed eyes on the shore, and then the dock, now several hundred yards away.

On the dock in the distance, Gilbert could only just barely make out the shape of two figures, faces turned towards the water just at the edge of the dock, and Gilbert watched, assuming that Arthur and the policeman were waiting for them to surface.

It only took a few more moments before the two figures moved away, one slowly following the other, who stormed off angrily.

They were gone; he and Lovino were safe.

Lovino made a curious sound from behind him, and Gilbert turned, a smile splitting his face.

“Lovino, you did it! Oh my god, you’re the most incredible – ”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence before he was winded again, this time much more agreeably and by finding himself with an armful of excited merman, hugging him tightly.

Lovino’s face nestled into Gilbert’s neck as the merman made a happy croon, and Gilbert felt heat rise up in his face when Lovino lifted his face and pressed his cheek deliberately to Gilberts in a strange sort of kiss, this one purely out of joy rather than necessity.

Lovino’s tail weaved itself through Gilbert’s legs as though he could barely stand to stop touching him, and they only broke apart when Gilbert starting sinking, unable to properly keep himself afloat without his legs. He laughed as Lovino let him go and leaped into the waves, only to jump out only a few moments later and flip himself over before splashing back down.

Gilbert just smiled, and Lovino let out a trilling cry that sounded almost like a laugh.

They stayed like that for a while, Lovino never swimming as far away from Gilbert as to lose sight of him and swimming close enough to brush his sides several times, clearly excited at his newfound freedom and the fact that he could share it with Gilbert.

Gilbert just watched, captivated by the way the moonlight played on Lovino’s smooth skin and the happy sounds he made that seemed to echo over the water.

Eventually though his leaps grew less and he wound his way around in a circle back closer to Gilbert, until he was just swimming lazy circles around him, Gilbert just watching and occasionally holding out his hands to brush Lovino’s sides as he swam past.

Then he shivered, and on a whim he looked back to the shore, noticing with a jolt that there was a ship built for searching, with lights on the bow, that was about to cast out.

 “Lovino…”

Lovino stopped in his circles, surfacing next to Gilbert and looking at him curiously. Gilbert met him with wide eyes before looked back to the shore.

“We have to go, quickly, before they come to find us.”

Lovino followed Gilbert’s gaze, his expression hardening as he grabbed Gilbert’s arm.

“I can take you with me, to home.”

He made to dive, and Gilbert shook his head, pulling his arm from Lovino’s grip to Lovino’s surprise.

“No, I have to go home. My home.”

Lovino’s face fell, a slight frown appearing.

“Your home?”

He looked as though he’d never contemplated the idea that Gilbert wouldn’t be coming with him, and Gilbert felt guilty for even mentioning it. But instead he just nodded, looking down into the water in front of him.

Lovino’s frown deepened, and he moved in close, framing Gilbert’s face with his hands and locking eyes with him – Gilbert’s red eyes didn’t even seem to slightly perturb him.

“You can come, don’t stay…”

He looked heartbroken, and Gilbert felt his own chest ache before he swallowed and responded.

“Lovino I have to stay… I have Ludwig. And…”

He looked down into the water, where his two legs were paddling gently and Lovino’s tail was swishing and keeping him afloat.

“I’m not built for water.”

Lovino followed his gaze, seeming to get the picture, and he turned from Gilbert a bit, seeming to hide his face. Gilbert almost thought he was about to swim away with no further words.

But then Lovino sadly swam closer, slinking his arms around Gilbert’s neck and pressing their cheeks together again, taking one long look at the ship at the dock before taking Gilbert’s hand and beginning to pull him around the rocky coast, away from the dock and in to the shore.

Lovino didn’t pull him the whole way – Gilbert swam on his own some of the way, Lovino leaping ahead and pausing occasionally to make sure that Gilbert was still paddling behind.

Gilbert expected Lovino to leave him at some point, especially when they heard the chug of the search ship’s small steam-powered motor, but even when Gilbert’s feet touched the sand of the shore the merman stayed, circling around, and even when Gilbert collapsed in the shallows, exhausted, Lovino crawled through the breakers and foam to lay next to him.

Anxiously, they both watched the ship’s light beam as it scanned the water around the dock, slowly moving out in increasing circles, and when it seemed to start moving towards their part of the coast Gilbert scooped Lovino up in a panic and pulled him into the tide pools so they could hide among the rocks.

They weren’t discovered though, and after a long while the chug of the ship’s motor faded and they were left with only their own breathing and the sounds of the waves breaking on the shore.

There wasn’t much else for them to do, now.

Gilbert looked down, wondering what else he could say, and tried to give a smile down to Lovino, who just looked up at him wistfully.

Lovino couldn’t stay – he had to head back to his family in the Mediterranean, wherever they were, and Gilbert had to keep living his little routine, keeping his family unit of himself and Ludwig alive until… well, he hadn’t thought that far. Until Ludwig grew up and left home and Gilbert made his own arrangements.

Either way, there wasn’t a way for Lovino to factor in.

Gilbert wanted to voice all of it, and was trying to think of how to put it into words or signs – but Lovino seemed to understand everything without Gilbert saying it, somehow. Gently, he laid his head down on Gilbert’s thigh, letting out a sad croon, and Gilbert sighed, laying his hand on Lovino’s head.

“I know…”

Gilbert’s hand stroked Lovino’s hair gently, and Lovino’s hands came up to hold the hand that wasn’t on his head, gently stroking the skin and inspecting each finger carefully.

Gilbert wasn’t sure how long they sat there like that, the tide pools filling and then ebbing around them, but he barely seemed to register time passing, and it was only when he noticed that the tide had left them and Lovino’s skin was almost completely dry that he shook him gently from where the merman had fallen into a light sleep.

Lovino made a few clicks and a low whistle, pushing himself up into a sitting position before looking at Gilbert, almost habitual frown in place.

Gilbert smiled sadly.

“Time for you to go, Lovino. You have to go home.”

With a smile he leant in towards Lovino, pressing their cheeks together like the merman had done before pulling back.

“That’s like a kiss, right?”

Lovino leant after him when he pulled away, and when Gilbert spoke he cocked his head, frowning curiously.

“Kiss…?”

Gilbert nodded.

“Yeah! You know, something you do with people you… people you love.”

Gilbert looked away, realising what he’d just said, and Lovino just looked down at the sand, biting his lip.

A moment of silence passed, Gilbert’s words hovering between then, and then Lovino looked up suddenly, fixing eyes with Gilbert. If he were human Gilbert would have expected him to say something important.

And in a way, he did.

“Show me.”

Gilbert blinked, taking in Lovino’s determined expression, thinking hurriedly on what this might mean and then finding that he didn’t particularly care anymore.

Slowly he leant in, cupping Lovino’s cheek and kissing him gently on the lips.

It wasn’t the hurried, life-or-death coupling from earlier, but a slow and sweet affair, and Gilbert felt his heart leap a bit when Lovino started kissing back, his own hands shaking as they came up to press gently onto Gilbert’s shoulders.

It took a moment before Gilbert registered the warm wetness on his face as tears, and when Lovino pulled away he smiled sadly before putting a sandy thumb to Gilbert’s cheek and wiping at them.

“I’ll come back, yes?”

Gilbert just nodded, his breath shaky, and Lovino gave a tiny smile, kissing him briefly again before pulling back.

A final pat of his cheek, a final tiny smile, a slow blink of murky hazel green eyes.

Then Lovino was gone.

It took only a few minutes for him to find his way into deep enough water to swim in, and only a few minutes after that for him to swim out into the deep.

He didn’t look back.

Gilbert watched until the spray from his tail disappeared, and even long after Lovino had disappeared over the horizon he sat, until morning light began to dawn and douse him in grey, the sun creeping over the cliffs behind him.

The birds started to call, heralding the morning, and Gilbert knew that he’d have to move soon, go get his boat, and head out with the tide that was still receding, just like he’d done every day for what seemed like forever. He’d go home to Ludwig, ask him about his day, place the money from what he’d sold onto the kitchen bench, and they’d eat dinner and retire early, so that Gilbert could get up early the next day and repeat the entire routine.

But this time, there would be no visits to the aquarium, or time spent signing through thick glass, or the tiny smiles Lovino would give him in between his more frequent frowns. There would be no Lovino, just the way it always had been.

Gilbert sighed heavily, looking out towards the horizon and watching the sky grow lighter.

Everything was just the same as it had been before.

And that was exactly the problem.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took way too long, it feels kind of rushed and ooc and there are more holes in it than a piece of Swiss cheese... but I have to post it now or else I'll just sit here tweaking it for the next two weeks like an ass.  
> Also, I lied! This is not the last chapter, I just couldn't resolve it quickly enough to tie it into this one, so I'm tacking on a short epilogue. There will be a happy ending, I swear!


	3. Meeting

Gilbert expected his life to just collapse back to the way it had been, after that.

After all, it had only been a friendship that had lasted for a few weeks, and it was with someone who wasn’t even human.

They hadn’t even had a full, unbroken conversation.

And yet, three weeks later, Gilbert still yearned for Lovino’s company; for his rare but bright smiles, and the way he had of telling half his stories with just his face, or the way he would press closer to the glass separating him and Gilbert, as though he could touch him through it if he pressed hard enough.

Their last few moments together had stuck with Gilbert through several sleepless nights; how surprisingly warm Lovino had been in his arms and how tightly he’d hugged him, how he’d seemed unable to stop touching him. What kissing him had felt like; something that was so strange and yet felt… right. Like they’d been leading up to that all along, and all it had taken was a mere suggestion for it to fall into place.

And then, the way Lovino had left without a second glance.

These things had haunted him for days and then weeks, and Gilbert had had to learn to shove them from his thoughts so that he could attempt to move on with his life. Not that it helped.

Lovino wasn’t coming back, no matter what he’d said to Gilbert. Of that he was fairly certain.

There was nothing for him here but memories of captivity and a single lonely fisherman, what would possibly make him want to come back?

But Gilbert could not seem to stop himself thinking about it. He still felt a thrill of excitement in his chest when he saw a dolphin tail break the surface of the water. He still had to remind his feet not to turn towards the aquarium after he was done selling his catch; even if he was doing business in the other coastal towns rather than his usual.

It was strange to think that anyone who’d asked questions about him in his usual haunt thought he was dead, but the proof they had for that was two eye witness accounts that he’d been drowned by the very thing he had stolen. He wasn’t about to show everyone proof of his miraculous survival only to be landed in prison, and he hadn’t had all that many close friends in town anyway.

So he and Ludwig ended up staying even more on the borders of civilisation than they already were, and Gilbert’s life went back to the way it always had been… or at least it did on the surface.

He found himself spending more time at sea, not necessarily working, but just… watching. He didn’t know why. Some days he didn’t even focus on catching anything, he just sailed further and further out like he was looking for something, only turning back once the sun had set on him and he absolutely had to.

He hadn’t put a lot of thought as to why, but sometimes he talked to people that weren’t there – his parents, or Elizaveta, and sometimes the merman that he knew couldn’t hear him anyway – and sometimes he sang to himself, his rough and unrefined voice echoing out across the water and back to him as though it was just a reminder of his own loneliness.

In a way it distracted him from the fact that he was just another washed up fisherman dreaming about fantastic creatures and a life that never was.

Then, starting as a trickle and increasing to a flood, he started hearing interesting rumours around town, and the tiniest spark of hope started to grow.

First, there was innocent talk of the seasons changing, and of dolphin and whale pods arriving from the south, and with them the calls of some strange creatures no-one had heard before – similar to dolphins, but not quite.

Then there were quiet suggestions of merpeople, which had Gilbert sitting in bars and nursing beers in the back corner by himself as he eavesdropped on conversations, ears constantly pricked for more information but not wanting to attract attention.

At first the stories were mere suggestions, drunkards ranting about things they wished they’d seen – but then there were stories of men going missing. Men being drowned and ships lost in completely calm seas, when there was no danger at all.

People nervously suggested hidden riptides or rocks, but everyone knew what everyone else was already suspecting, and all the drunkards who’d been waved off as ranting lunatics smiled smugly as people started asking them for more stories.

Then there was a survivor of one of these ill-fated expeditions – and with the survivor the stories grew into what seemed like reality.

“They came upon us suddenly,” the man had said, plied with beer and whiskey to tell his story.

“Calm and silent they were, and very quick – they heard our motor, I think. But no sooner we’d dropped the nets then they grabbed us, and the men that weren’t grabbed got dashed onto the rocks. I swear I’ve got the luck of the devil to have escaped from that. Washed up onshore with the wreckage.”

He’d taken a break for dramatic effect, taking a long draught of beer, everyone waiting on tenterhooks for him to continue.

“Great dolphin creatures, with the torsos of men… like no mermaid you ever saw. Handsome they were, handsome as men get, but god… the cold murder in those eyes is something I never want to see again.”

The other men clustered around the shaken sailor ooh’d and aah’d appropriately, and Gilbert had just stared unseeingly into his beer, heart pounding, white knuckled as he tried to stop himself from immediately running to his boat and casting off.

That had to be Lovino, how many merpeople were there in the world actually? Only those that seemed to lurk around the Mediterranean, there’d never been any sightings up north… up until now, only a few months after Gilbert had freed Lovino.

It had to be him.

So, like any borderline insane man chasing a dream, he’d ignored any and all suggestion that these creatures were dangerous, and set out as soon as the tides would allow the next morning to the last place they’d been sighted.

Hope was not a common emotion in Gilbert’s repertoire, and it was almost intoxicating as he cast off and waited for a favourable wind.

But if it were, maybe he would have realised how dangerous it was.

**

Gilbert’s boat drifted in silence, sails furled, oars withdrawn, and the sun beating down on him overhead as he sat and stared out over the frustratingly calm waves, waiting for something, anything. In his hands was his net, and occasionally he would break his staring contest with the horizon to look down and mend a frayed rope or retie a knot, but for the most part, he was a picture of patience.

The sun slowly rose as he sat there, motionless, and as it passed the centre of the sky and started to descend again, watching Gilbert sitting quietly – and still alone – he growled with frustration.

It was true he hadn’t seen anything of Lovino for months and this wasn’t unusual, but he would have thought that he at least could see a glimpse of _something_ if he’d followed the rumours.

With a sigh, he decided that he might as well attempt to catch something so the day wouldn’t be a total waste.

Within a few minutes his shirt was discarded in the heat of the midday sun and he was working to lower and secure his net, hoping that this spot would at least give him something to sell, if it wouldn’t give him what he was looking for.

And then fate decided to really throw a wrench in the works of his life.

Roughly twenty minutes later he felt several sharp tugs on the net from something trapped in it, and he frowned and started to pull it up, finding himself almost pulled overboard from the struggles of whatever he’d caught. Getting the thing up to the side of his boat was a colossal struggle, and as he pulled it over the edge and into the small craft it fell heavily to the deck and he fell heavily backward with it, his lap suddenly full of net and wet creature.

Then he looked into the net and registered a dolphin tail, melding into tanned skin on a slender torso with a head topped with brown hair, and he jumped, starting to pull the net away from the creature.

“Oh… oh my god…”

Then the merman looked up, and Gilbert made eye contact with a pair of wide and frightened honey brown eyes and not murky hazel, in a face that was similar but not nearly the same as Lovino’s.

“…Lovino?”

And then the creature screamed, voice high and piercing, and Gilbert only had a moment to stand and move away, putting his hands over his ears and grimacing.

Then he vaguely registered a sudden weight causing the boat to shudder back the other way, and two wet hands suddenly locked around his ankles and gave a sharp yank.

He fell forward onto the deck with a loud thump and a yelp, the sudden impact winding him, and then the hands pulled again and he helplessly slid over the side of his boat and into the water, his hands flailing uselessly for something to hold onto and closing on air.

For a short moment his panic was suspended by the thought that maybe this was Lovino, pulling the trick that he had in the harbour a few months ago – but the hands around his ankles continued to pull him deeper, giving one final yank before letting go and quickly resettling around his neck before he could swim away.

Then Gilbert saw a flash of shoulder length golden hair and a handsome face set in a vicious snarl, and the hands started squeezing before the merman started to dive.

This was not Lovino at all.

He put his hands to the grip around his neck and thrashed, but they stayed firm, and he just helplessly watched the light of the surface slowly getting further and further away over his attacker’s head. Another merman fell in behind the first, this one with short dark hair that was again reminiscent of Lovino’s – reminiscent, but clearly not at all the same.

He felt dread settle heavily in his gut. He was going to die here.

The pressure of quickly deepening water and lack of air started to hit his head, and his sight started to dim, his lungs starting to burn with the need to breathe. He gave a few more weak pulls on the hands around his neck, a few final struggles, but it was useless. The merman was in his element, there was no way Gilbert would even be able to swim to the surface away from him even if he did escape, and certainly not past the second merman that was following them down.

He felt his heart beating frantically in his chest like a panicked bird, his lungs screaming for air, and slowly his eyes closed as he ran out of energy to keep them open.

Months of pining and longing and loneliness, and he ended up drowned by a merman because he didn’t heed warnings of them being dangerous.

At least now the stories in town were true.

Suddenly, a piercing shriek hit his ears, and he winced – it was even louder underwater. Something smacked into his attacker, wrenching the hands away from his throat, and he forced his eyes open past the blackness, willing himself with everything he had to not take a lungful of water.

Briefly, he spied a dark shape wrestling with the other, shrieking all the while before the larger shape – his attacker – swam a little ways away, watching the smaller shape as it swam closer.

Gilbert dimly registered two gentle arms hook under his shoulders and pull him up, a familiar voice crooning softly to him all the while.

_Lovino._

And it was at that moment that his body gave up, his sight going black and his limbs going limp as he lost consciousness.

**

_“Feliciano, get your lazy ass over here and help!”_

Lovino bobbed gently on the surface of the water, cradling Gilbert in his arms and making sure his head was out of the water.

Damn Francis, the alarmist, he’d almost drowned the only human that was actually worthwhile just because Feliciano was stupid and got caught in a net and screamed, like he does with _everything_ …

Feliciano’s head finally appeared over the side of the boat – at least Lovino assumed it was a boat, it matched the description of the thing Gilbert had given once – and Lovino scowled at him.

_“Look what you did, you idiot! I can’t get him over the side by myself, I need you to help, so hurry up!”_

Feliciano just cocked his head curiously, and Lovino grit his teeth, reminding himself that patience was a virtue.

_“What’s so important about this one? You didn’t care last time Francis did that…”_

Lovino gave a warning growl.

_“Yeah, but this one is **my** human, he’s not like the other ones. Now help me!”_

Feliciano gave a start, leaning further out of the boat.

_“ **Your** human? You mean the one who helped you escape?”_

Lovino sighed with exasperation, biting his tongue and not correcting him – Gilbert was more than just a human who helped him escape, he was _Lovino’s_ human, which meant he was Very Important. But instead of muttering something that he might regret, he just nodded.

Feliciano gave a sound of interest, leaning out over the side of the boat and reaching out for the limp human in Lovino’s arms.

Gilbert had gone completely limp only a few seconds before they’d reached the surface, and Lovino was panicking just a bit about that. Humans didn’t just _do_ that unless they were dead…

Feliciano grabbed Gilbert’s arms, pulling him up the side of the boat with a visible effort, and Lovino quickly scrambled up himself, reaching out and making sure Gilbert’s head didn’t hit the wood as they pulled him up together.

Gilbert fell heavily into the boat, and Lovino quickly grabbed him from his brother and lay him out on his back, looking at his closed eyes and still chest and feeling panic start to set in.

What was he meant to do? Humans did things to get each other to come back to life after this, didn’t they? They got the water out of their chests or something…

Struck with an idea, Lovino pressed his ear to Gilbert’s chest, listening for something that sounded like a heartbeat – did humans have those? He was pretty sure they did.

Sure enough, when he held his breath for a moment and just listened, there was a faint thud against Gilbert’s chest, and Lovino let a breath of relief go, looking up at Gilbert’s face.

Well, at least he was alive. He should be breathing though, humans always breathed if they were out of water, so something was definitely wrong. Experimentally, Lovino pressed down on Gilbert’s chest, feeling it give a little. He curiously watched the way Gilbert’s mouth opened just slightly as he did so… was it letting air out or something?

Lovino leaned forward, one hand still on Gilbert’s chest, having a thought.

If air was coming out, then maybe it went back in the same way? Like when he’d shared a breath with Gilbert last time, underwater – maybe it was like that?

Experimentally he pressed his mouth to Gilbert’s slightly open one, pushing a breath into his mouth and feeling his chest rise slightly under his hand. It didn’t go down though, so tentatively Lovino pressed down on his chest, hearing the breath come out of his mouth again.

He repeated the process again, breathing in and then pressing Gilbert’s chest down, trying to simulate breathing and hoping this was something like what humans did to each other when this happened.

The third time he pressed down on Gilbert’s chest, suddenly the human gave a few hacking coughs, water spluttering out of his mouth, and Lovino let out a sound of relief, watching as Gilbert’s chest started rising and falling regularly by itself.

Lovino leant closer as he watched him intently, arms bracing themselves on either side of Gilbert’s head, one hand making its way to the soft hair on the back of Gilbert’s neck and absentmindedly stroking through it. He watched Gilbert’s eyelids flutter and waited with bated breath for them to open, ignoring the sounds of movement that Feliciano was making behind him.

Gilbert would wake up soon now, Lovino was sure of it, and that was the Most Important Thing so Feliciano could just go away.

And sure enough, slowly the silver eyebrows furrowed and Gilbert’s eyes slid open, slowly clearing and locking onto Lovino’s face, and Lovino hardly dared to breathe.

“Lovino?”

Lovino just smiled, feeling emotion well up in his chest as he looked down at the man he’d been searching for over the past months – but then both he and Gilbert jumped when Feliciano made a loud and curious noise from behind them, causing Lovino to turn and glare at him.

His stupid brother had gone digging through Gilbert’s things, and he’d found the white thing that Gilbert wore on his top half most of the time – except for now, for some reason – and was draping it on his head, crooning curiously at the way it shrouded him from the sun.

Lovino made a noise of annoyance, crawling over to his brother and ripping the thing away from his head.

_“That’s not how it works, idiot – plus, it’s my human, you aren’t allowed to touch his things.”_

Feliciano cried out with disappointment as Lovino draped the thing around his own shoulders instead of his head like you were supposed to, crossing his arms and frowning petulantly.

_“But Loviiiiiiiiinoooooo…”_

“Lovino?”

Gilbert.

Lovino turned back to him and quickly removed the white thing from his shoulders, draping it around Gilbert like he’d seen him do before. Gilbert just chuckled, sliding his arms through the tube things on the sides and fastening it in the middle around himself.

Lovino just watched him do it, taking in the fact that he was now sitting up and seemed no worse the wear for his encounter with Francis – except for the rapidly darkening marks on his throat.

Lovino growled and leaned back in close to Gilbert, tutting angrily at the marks, and as he stroked them gently Gilbert just shook his head, putting his hands on Lovino’s.

“Hey, I’m ok, I’m fine… oh god Lovino, I missed you so much.”

Lovino looked up at Gilbert’s face, unable to stop his heart from thumping at the way he was smiling at him, like Lovino was the only important thing on the boat right now, never mind the still pouting Feliciano behind him.

_I missed you too._

Instinctively, he leaned in, wrapping his arms snugly around Gilbert’s chest and pressing their cheeks together – he heard Feliciano behind him gasp, but he really didn’t care – and then Gilbert pressed his lips to Lovino’s cheek with a little pecking sound, his arms wrapping around Lovino in return.

It was so warm and nice after a while away, and Lovino couldn’t help but to wriggle a little closer and tuck his head into Gilbert’s neck, savouring the embrace.

Gilbert pulled away first, and Lovino whined just a tiny bit at the loss of contact – but then Gilbert gestured behind Lovino, at the other merman who was still occupying the ship.

“So this is Feliciano, I’m guessing?”

Lovino just rolled his eyes, and Feliciano smiled when he saw Gilbert look his way.

_“Lovino, he’s talking to me! What’s he saying?”_

Lovino just sighed.

_“That you’re a nuisance and you should get off the boat right now.”_

Feliciano pouted again, huffing dramatically.

_“No he didn’t, he’s smiling! Why are you always so mean, Lovino?”_

The conversation was interrupted as they heard two splashes from off the side of the boat, and Lovino was immediately on guard – he’d almost forgotten that Francis and Antonio were still here.

Feliciano leant off the side of the boat, chattering quickly with them about _“yes, I’m ok, it was just a false alarm… oh, it’s Lovino’s human, and he’s alright, Lovino’s excited to see him again…”_

Then Lovino heard the suspicious sound of something grabbing the side of the boat, and as Francis pulled himself up, Lovino, who still had his arms around Gilbert’s neck, reluctantly untangled himself from the human and tried to look nonchalant.

Antonio followed Francis up, mirroring Feliciano’s now bright expression as he noticed Gilbert and looked him up and down – Francis however, merely moved over to where Gilbert was, leaning close to his face and squinting at him.

Gilbert leaned away slightly, looking very uncomfortable, and Lovino put a hand on Francis’ arm, trying to gently pull him away and redirect his attention.

_“He’s really hurt Francis, he almost didn’t wake up – I told you to be careful which humans you do that to, dammit!”_

Francis looked from Gilbert to Lovino and just tossed his head seemingly carelessly, shrugging.

_“You and Feliciano are my first priority. Your grandfather told me to take care of you, and I’m doing exactly that – or have you forgotten that it was a human that we almost lost you to the first time?”_

Lovino just scowled.

_“I thought you liked humans, that’s why Nonno let you come… now you’re drowning them. What happened to the humans you used to be friends with?”_

Francis’ expression seemed to harden, and Lovino shrunk back a little.

_“Those are different Lovino. People change.”_

He looked back to Gilbert.

_“Besides, I don’t know the intentions of this human and I’m not sure I trust him.”_

Lovino narrowed his eyes at Francis, and Antonio made a small noise of distress before pulling himself over to Francis and putting himself between him and Lovino.

_“Yes, but it’s all fine now, right? This is Lovino’s human, we know that he helped Lovino escape, so he can’t be too dangerous…”_

He turned to Lovino. _“And he’s ok now, Francis didn’t kill him, so everything’s fine, isn’t it?”_

Lovino just sighed, ignoring Antonio and tugging on Francis’ arm.

_“Stop leering at him. You’re scaring him.”_

Francis just let out a chuckle, turning back to Gilbert, who had watched the exchange with interest, even though he clearly didn’t understand.

Francis cleared his throat and opened his mouth, and everyone on board the ship gave a start when human speech came out.

“Tell me, what exactly are your intentions with Lovino?”

Gilbert just blinked, looking a little shocked, and Francis reiterated.

“What has brought you to these waters, why did you help him? You must know that most humans seem unable to coexist with us, so why should we trust you?”

Gilbert paused, then stuttered a few syllables, looking down to the deck of the boat.

“I… I care very deeply for Lovino, and I enjoy his company. I want to make sure he’s safe, and I…”

Gilbert bit his lip, looking up at the horizon and very definitely not at Francis.

“…I came to find him because I missed him.”

Francis scrutinised Gilbert, who managed to make a few seconds of eye contact before Francis nodded curtly.

“Lovino trusts you. Do not abuse that trust, or else as his older brother I will be forced to enact what I have already done to you a thousandfold.”

Gilbert swallowed nervously, a hand going to the marks at his neck as Francis stared, it becoming quickly apparent that he was waiting for a response. Gilbert stuttered a moment, then coughed nervously.

“Of… of course. I… I won’t. You can trust me, I want Lovino to be safe as much as you do.”

Francis nodded sagely, searching Gilbert’s face, and upon seeing whatever he was looking for he broke into a sudden smile, holding out a hand.

“Then we have an agreement, human.”

Hesitantly, Gilbert gripped Francis’ hand, and it was shook up and down firmly a few times before it was released, declaring the conversation over.

They shared another moment of eye contact, then Francis moved away from Gilbert to bump Antonio’s shoulder affectionately.

Antonio, with wide eyes, immediately started questioning Francis about the extent of his knowledge of human language and followed Francis as he leapt from the side of the boat with a splash.

Feliciano took a final look at Lovino before doing the same, clearly also curious about Francis’ knowledge – they’d known Francis had been friends with some humans years ago, before the shorelines got too dangerous for them to coexist, but they didn’t know he was still conversational in human speech.

Lovino was curious too, but Gilbert was there, which was much more important than anything Francis had to say.

He turned to Gilbert, only to find him watching Lovino with concern, and Lovino sighed, rolling his eyes and opening his mouth to try and summarise.

“My grandfather told… F… Fraaan…cis to watch out for me and Feliciano. When Feliciano got caught he panicked.”

Gilbert frowned slightly, looking over the edge of the boat and making uncomfortable eye contact with Francis for a few seconds before looking back at Lovino.

“How does he know human speech?”

Lovino shrugged, moving a little closer to Gilbert.

“People didn’t always hate us so much. Francis hasn’t really said much about it though, I think he knew the human who caught me and was… angry… at him.”

Lovino shook his head, reached out a hand to gently trace the marks on Gilbert’s neck again, frowning.

“It doesn’t matter, he hurt you. He’s… stupid.”

Suddenly, the surface of the water shattered, and Francis met Lovino’s eye, frowning up at him and gesturing for him to come into the water.

_“Lovino, we need to go or else we’ll miss the tide, come on!”_

Lovino groaned, but with a look up at the sky and then down into the water he knew Francis was right.

He had to go.

With reluctance, he pulled Gilbert into one last hug before moving to the edge of the ship and clambering over it, momentarily forgetting that Gilbert didn’t speak merperson and chattering a quick goodbye in squeaks and squawks.

Gilbert grabbed his arm just as he made to dive overboard though, panic in his eyes.

“When will I see you again though? Where can I find you?”

Lovino blinked, nodding sharply.

“Here, tomorrow. I’ll come.”

Gilbert’s face softened, and he gently pulled Lovino a little closer by the arm and kissed him gently on the lips.

“Until tomorrow then.”

Lovino felt his heart swell at the brief contact, and as Gilbert pulled away Lovino stuttered several nonsense syllables, mouth working in a language he didn’t understand.

Gilbert frowned for a moment, looking at Lovino’s face, then just cupped his face and smiled at him, muttering something gently to him in words he didn’t know.

Lovino didn’t catch it – but the look in Gilbert’s eyes when he said it, and the gentle touch of his hands… he thought he understood it well enough.

_I love you too._

_“Lovino!”_

Lovino gave a start, making a rude hand gesture down at Francis and pressing his cheek to Gilbert’s one more time, for everyone else’s benefit more than his – then he dived off the side of the boat, reluctantly swimming away after the small pod.

Gilbert waved until they were out of sight though, and the memory of Gilbert’s lips on his burned just under Lovino’s skin for the rest of the day.

_I love you._

**

Life became so much more bearable after that, for everyone involved.

Feliciano and Lovino, along with a few others in the pod, decided to make northern waters their more permanent home. They still went south for winter, when the climate became too cold for them, but they were local for at least six months of the year, which worked for both Lovino and Gilbert.

Every day, Gilbert would sail out and Lovino would meet him, hopping up into the boat excitedly and talking in steadily improving human speech while Gilbert listened with a smile.

As it turned out, having a merman on board did wonders for actually finding fish, and they always managed to catch a full quota – sometimes, before midday.

The day after was often just spent together, with Lovino quickly grasping more human language as the weeks went on and Gilbert starting to recognise certain merperson calls and mimic them, to Lovino’s excitement.

There were some days where they’d only see each other briefly – passing like ships in the night, confident in the fact that the other would be there to meet them the next morning. Other days, they’d be together until late into the night, pressed against each other as they lay on the deck of Gilbert’s boat and named the stars.

They had different names for nearly every constellation, but when Lovino’s hand found Gilberts and held it tight they both agreed that the word for it was “nice.”

On the surface, nothing in Gilbert’s life had changed – he still sailed out at dawn and returned at night, trading stories with Ludwig about their days over dinner. He still sold his catch in coastal towns, stories of merpeople becoming more commonplace but also more frustrated, as people failed to catch more than fleeting glimpses of them and the attacks on ships became much less frequent.

Gilbert was probably more than a little responsible for that.

But his life was still essentially, at its core, the same.

The only thing different was the way he defined his world.

The ocean was no longer a dangerous, lonely place, but rather a promise that he’d see Lovino, who was becoming increasingly important to him. He learned the nuance of tides and of different waters in a deeper way than he had before, so that they felt more like a welcome embrace than a silent threat, and often the sun setting over calm blue water seemed like more of a home than solid land.

Deep in his chest, he finally felt something that he’d label as “satisfaction”, and he only realised that he’d been empty and hollow now that his heart was full.

It was the way that he’d go to sleep without the sense of loneliness that had driven him to distraction, or the way he’d wake up actually refreshed instead of dreading the day.

It was the gentle touch of Lovino’s curious hands as he marvelled at the texture of Gilbert’s hair, or Lovino’s rare smiles that Gilbert was learning how to earn. It was Lovino’s stuttering sentences and frustrated voice when they ran into language barriers, and the relief in his eyes when Gilbert just embraced him tightly and whispered that he loved him.

And he did.

Gilbert’s life had always been simple, and he’d come to resent it – but now he realised that simplicity could be fulfilling. The quiet satisfaction of just watching the sun set over the waves with his hand in someone else’s was his new definition of happiness, and for once, Gilbert couldn’t think of a single thing that he wanted more than this.

They’d found a place where two worlds collided and the shallows met the deep – and Gilbert realised that it was exactly where he belonged.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here I am, with the last chapter of something I was meant to finish months ago... I'm so sorry ;-; I'm not altogether happy with it but if I wait any longer it'll never get posted because I'm an ass :/  
> If there's anything I left unexplained in my forgetfulness, please feel free to leave a comment and ask (or just leave a comment in general, honestly) but otherwise, thankyou for reading, I hope you enjoyed!


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